After National Guardsman overdoses, family creates repository of heroin information

Michael Allen Blair/ MBlair@21st CenturyMedia.com

Robert Brandt, founder, "Robbys Voice" talks about the 2011 heroin overdose death of his son Robby, during the 2013 Heroin Summit: A Crisis Facing Our Entire Community held in downtown Cleveland. At left is Robby's senior picture.

Time and again, Robert Brandt feels driven to tell the story of his son, Robby.
It is a story with a tragic ending.
Robby died in November 2011 after overdosing on heroin. He was days away from deploying to Afghanistan with his Army National Guard unit.
In recent weeks, Brandt has told his son’s story at the Heroin Summit in Cleveland and a town hall meeting in Westlake focused on the rise in heroin use in Northeast Ohio’s suburbs.
Robby was one of three children born to Brandt and his wife, Carla. The family lived in Olmsted Falls until recently moving to Medina.
When he was a sophomore in high school, Robby was prescribed a prescription pain-killer after the removal of his wisdom teeth.
“We were involved parents, smart parents, but we didn’t know about drugs, addiction and the signs of drug abuse,” Brandt said.
Later, the Brandts would learn Robby became addicted to pain medication and began using heroin in high school.
After he graduated from high school, completed basic training and returned home, Carla Brandt was the first to notice troubling changes in her son.
“Mothers know. Mothers always know,” Robert Brandt said.
The parents decided to have a heart-to-heart conversation with Robby.
“We told him we had to know the truth. He told us the truth,” Brandt said. “You can’t prepare to hear that, to hear your child is addicted to heroin.”
Robby agreed to enter an eight-week rehab program.
“He completed the program and promised to never do drugs again,” Brandt said. “We felt like we’d won. We beat the devil. We had our family back.”
In July 2011, Robby learned that Tyler, a friend he’d made in rehab, had relapsed and died of a heroin overdose.
Although shaken by that news, the Brandts took heart from Robby’s continued sobriety.
The dark sense of foreboding returned when Robby, days away from shipping out to Afghanistan, left one afternoon and didn’t return at the promised time.
Panicked, Brandt activated the GPS he’d installed in Robbie’s car. His heart sank when the reading came to an address in East Cleveland, where Robby had formerly purchased heroin.
Brandt rushed to East Cleveland, checked in with the police and then set out trying to find Robby. His search continued into the night and wee hours of the morning.
“I was going down streets in East Cleveland with a flashlight in my hand, going to places I probably shouldn’t have gone. But this was my son,” Brandt said.
He returned home, grabbed a few hours’ sleep and arrived at the East Cleveland police station the following morning.
The police chief called Brandt into his office, asked him to sit down, put his arm around him and delivered the news.
Shortly before he’d arrived, Robby’s lifeless body had been found by an East Cleveland patrolman.
After burying their son, the Brandts resolved to honor his memory by making a difference in the fight against heroin.
They launched www.robbysvoice.com, a website that offers information about heroin and links to agencies dealing with the heroin epidemic that has spread from the inner city to the suburbs.
“We need to act with urgency and unmitigated sense of purpose,’’ Brandt told a hushed gathering of 750 attendees at the Heroin Summit.
“How much more needs to happen, how many more deaths will there be, before we dispense with all the excuses and self-interest and just get it done.”

About the Author

David has been a full-time writer with The News-Herald since 1984. He writes about news, sports and entertainment, He served as president of the Television Critics Association from 1993-95. Reach the author at dglasier@News-Herald.com
or follow David on Twitter: @nhglasier.